Officially wrapping up their indoor track season, the Jumbos participated in the ECAC Tournament at Boston University last weekend. While coach Connie Putnam did not set the team up so that it would score many points, Tufts managed to place 13th out of 40 participating schools.
Prior to the meet, Putnam mentioned that the goal of his team was not to place the highest it could, but rather to use it as a last-chance opportunity to qualify team members for Nationals.
"I don't think there's any chance of winning it, so I'm not going to set the team up to spread our points out. Instead this is more for qualifying," Putnam said.
Despite its goal, Tufts failed to qualify any members for Nationals during the ECAC meet. Sophomore Bryan Pitko and freshman Patrick Taylor were the team's most promising candidates to qualify, but both fell short of their goals.
Pitko had come close to a qualifying time the weekend before at All New Englands, when he tied the school record in the 55-meter high hurdles (7.74). He hoping to break the record and make Nationals this weekend, but he fell short of both goals, taking third place with a time of 7.85.
"I would have liked to see Bryan go to Nationals, he really deserved it," senior co-captain Darren Fabbri said.
Despite his strong performance in the triple jump, Taylor was also unable to qualify. The weekend did mark a great improvement for the freshman, though, as he jumped 45'1" to take third place in his event. Taylor's jump was a major improvement from the career best he had established the weekend before (43'10.5").
With nobody qualifying last weekend, senior Dave Patterson will be the Jumbos' sole representative at the national meet in Chicago this coming weekend. While the distance medley team had qualified for an NCAA provisional standard, the coach decided not to take them along without an automatic bid.
While the Jumbos missed one of their highest meet scorers in Patterson, the team was still able to do fairly well in the ECAC meet. Beating out rivals such as MIT, they featured a much more balanced scoring attack than even the coach could have anticipated. Patterson took the weekend to run the mile at the IC4As.
Along with Pitko and Taylor, major contributors to the scoring effort included juniors Ben Smith and JR Cruz. Smith took fifth place in the 1,500 run (3:59.35), while Cruz took a fifth in the 5,000 (15:07.25). Freshman Chinua Thelwell helped add to his team's total taking 11th place in the 55 high hurdles (8.03).
While the team did not meet its goal of qualifying more men for Nationals, it was still pleased with the overall effort at the meet and with the season overall.
"Everyone did what they wanted to do, and everyone had a good season," Fabbri said.
With their team health much improved from last year, the Jumbos look forward to the spring season. They hope to see progress in the field events and the relay teams, as development in both areas will serve to strengthen the team.
